Researchers at Yale University developed studies to answer the question: Do babies have a sense of right and wrong? What they came up with may surprise you.
Read The moral life of babies, on NYTimes.com. Be sure to watch the video.
Link submitted by a Lovefraud reader.
shana31
Thanks for your comments one_step and OxD. I never felt like I was diagnosable, but I guess this whole situation has me going even deeper than my overanalytical mind usually goes. Sometimes a blessing, sometimes a curse! 🙂
shana31
Buttons- I have to admit there were times I seemed like your son. There is a whole family dynamic thing that I won’t get into here, but maybe the chemical imbalance that was discovered at 33, had its roots in my childhood.
I have done a lot of introspection and analyzation since then, found myself, found God and like who I am, so I guess I will give myself a break! Thank you all so much.
super chic
@skylar, so it sounds like you went in a circle
and ended up almost right back where you started.
The same thing but with someone else?
super chic
heavenbound, if you’re out there, just wanted to say hi 🙂
Quantum Solace
I can attest to the veracity of this article. I have two children and saw them being born and evolve differently. My son has an incredible innate sense of right and wrong. He knew the difference since the day he was born. My daughter, however, was the complete opposite. Pointing out something she was done wrong was a great offense to her – just like it was to her father. They both felt that they had the right to screw up and the rest of the world had the obligation to deal with it and don’t you dare point that out! However, 13 years of being around such a inmoral, perverted, sick and twisted individual have even done its job on my son. Over time, he too lost the ability to tell right from wrong. It’s not so much that he is as self-righteous as his father and sister but that he simply doesn’t give a damn. What the poor little soul must have endured is unimaginable!
neveragain
I’d love to see an article exploring the sense of morality in different species. (I know there have been some.) I truly believe it is not just humans how have this. THAT will be a huge breakthrough…when humans lose their arrogance about themselves compared with quite a few different species on various traits. Dr. Gay Bradshaw has done some work on this. Also studying PTSD and how it expresses itself in elephants, parrots, dolphins, etc.
Ox Drover
Dear Never,
I have a little cat that is an inside cat now, and after being an outside cat here on the farm for a couple of years and being a “lovie” sweet cat, my son C moved home with his two huge neutered male P-cats. They were so destructive I made him put them outside and they PERSECUTED my little outside cat until she was psychotic and paranoid. She left and went to live at a neighor’s place. We got her back, put her inside, neutered her and so on, and she has readjusted but she has PTSD, I swear it! I’ve watched her go through all the “changes’ of finally feeling SAFE again. She looks out the windows and through the screen doors but the outside is no longer “safe” for her in her mind (My son’s cats are gone now) but I don’t think she will ever feel “safe” outside again.
All animals are instinctive and each species is different but I think all animals (and that includes humans) have some sense of right and wrong, except for the few specimines that don’t. Sometimes that works FOR their survival and sometimes it doesn’t. We just have to learn to watch for the lack of empathy in other “human” animals.
skylar
shabby,
I think he’s schizoid. He knows more about sociopaths and narcissism than your average person. We discuss it at length all the time. He’s been studying it at length for years in regards to ponerology and sociopathy in government. But then his behavior is bizarre and less than honest – he lies AND keeps secrets. But he’s not very good at either. If he were, then he’d be a sociopath.
The reason I can’t post very long is because I don’t have a lot of privacy and I don’t feel comfortable with him knowing that I post here. So when he walks in, I log out.
bulletproof
OxDrover
My 2 cats show more empathy and love than the P…it’s not like a right and wrong more what is most loving ….my cat senses when I am down and she will sit by me and if I put my hand down to pet her she licks it!
The P once said “you love those cats more than me” and it was true, my cats had more humanity than him!!!
Ox Drover
Dear Skylar,
And you are with this guy WHY?